


When Felling Trees

by 4eeldrive



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3189830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4eeldrive/pseuds/4eeldrive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya's lumberjack skills help sow the seeds for revolution on Alternia, probably.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Felling Trees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anxiousAnarchist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiousAnarchist/gifts).



When the Virgin Mother Grub had first come upon the jadeblooded wriggler with the horn crooked just like her own, she had been smitten. Suddenly the walls of the breeding caverns were too close and too confining, and the guards all much too threatening. She wanted this grub to survive, and she wanted to survive with her. So she tunneled their way out, emerging into the glaring sun, just her and the child alone in the desert.

But such a grave trespass would not be left alone for long, so before the threshecutioners had a chance to find them, the Mother Grub headed to the mountains, the last place anyone would think she could survive. The chill and snow were too deadly for a Mother Grub, and even trolls themselves, evolved from bugs and without a shiver response, would have trouble in the cold. Among the snowy mountain peaks no one would look for her.

Kanaya grew up deep in a sprawling forest, alone among the snow and trees, save for her mother.

The solitude extended into her adult life. Early on she discovered an enjoyment in chopping down trees and using a chainsaw. She had an arrangement with a struggling settlement to supply them with lumber in exchange for the few things she needed. The lumber drops occurred during the day. Kanaya liked the sunlight, and rarely encountering anyone meant less risk of having someone notice her blood was more jade than olive, and her having to explain why she was outside the brooding caverns. Her payment was left in a drop-off point, and had never been late. As underhanded as trolls could be, none of them wanted to risk freezing to death, so her payment had always been where it was supposed to, when it was supposed to.

Generally, Kanaya liked her time spent alone, and the private satisfaction of felling a tree. However, the isolation meant that her lumberjack etiquette was sometimes lacking – she tended to forget to call out when a tree was falling. Who was there to notice? Her mother always chided her though, when she heard a tree falling, but not her daughter calling, so Kanaya tried her best to remember.

Her mother probably also heard the other woman shriek when the tree Kanaya was chopping, and neglected to call out, fell almost right on top of her.

“Are you all right?” Kanaya yelled as she ran towards where the tip of the tree had landed. The woman who staggered away from the impact site was bundled up against the cold, so wrapped up in furs that she looked almost like a bear.

“Oh, I think so. It was more scary than anything.” As she pulled back her hood she treated Kanaya to a dazzling smile full of razor sharp teeth. Kanaya also noticed the woman’s telltale gills, and the slight fuchsia tint creeping into her cheeks.

“Oh, um, my apologies your Imperialness?” Kanaya’s lumberjacking etiquette might have been rusty, but it had nothing on how little she knew about how to interact with royalty. How was one supposed to address an Heiress slated for culling that one had nearly just killed?

“Imperialness-to-be!” The Heiress quickly corrected her, still smiling and impossibly chipper. “But Feferi would be fine, also.”

“Well, I can only hope that her Imperialness-to-be will be magnanimous and forgiving to the lumberjack who almost killed her, should she succeed in taking the throne.”

Feferi laughed. “Of course! No harm done! Does the Empire have royal lumberjacks? I’ll likely need one of those, and you’re the first one I’ve met. I’d need to know your name before I gave you such a high appointment, of course.”

“It’s Kanaya. And I have no idea, I just bring logs to the town in the valley to the north of here.”

The Heiress’s face fell. “Oh. I thought there wouldn’t be a whole lot of people up here in the cold. I was hoping to hide out for a while, you know?”

Kanaya nodded. She was sympathetic, also keeping to the mountains to avoid the eyes of the Empire. She noticed how jittery Feferi was, shifting uneasily on her feet, and frequently glancing over her shoulder. It was exhausting, hiding. Better to have a place to go and rest.

“Well,” she started hesitantly “I suppose you could stay at my hive, for a little bit.” Kanaya motioned vaguely in the direction of her home. Mother would at least be excited to know she was socializing a little.

There were so many teeth in the grin that spread across Feferi’s face, Kanaya for a moment thought she had made a dire error. But Kanaya was good with her chainsaw, and any remaining doubts she had were assuaged when Feferi reached out and took her hand.

“Thank you!” Feferi yelled in excitement, her words echoing a bit off the trees. Realizing how loud she had been, she held a finger up to her lips, shushing herself. Then she eagerly set off in the direction Kanaya had waved, pulling Kanaya along.

Kanaya supposed she would have to come back for the lumber.

They crunched along in the snow in silence for a bit, their breath puffing out and freezing before them. Eventually they reached Kanaya’s home.

“Mother, I have a guest,” Kanaya called into the hive as she entered. The Mother Grub had been napping, but perked up as her daughter entered. They never had guests.

“Oh, hi!” Feferi greeted the Mother Grub with a somewhat awkward pat on the head, which the Mother Grub grudgingly accepted, chirping her slight annoyance.

Kanaya watched as Feferi examined her house, reaching out to touch just about everything, lifting some of her things and putting them back down just slightly off-center. She was suddenly anxious – how would the other woman interpret her based on her meticulously kept hive? Hopefully not fussy, it was just good habit to keep a clean home.

“Your house is nice! And now it’s harboring a rogue Heiress, oh! It's a nice home and the birthplace of rebellion.”

“I should hope my hive would not be remembered as something so infamous.”

“All right, I’ll start my rogue cell somewhere else.” Feferi had wandered over to the rack where Kanaya kept her axes – they could double as weapons if anyone tried to attack her in her home, and her chainsaw had stalled, so she kept them out in easy reach. The heiress started to fiddle with them, spinning the haft of one. Kanaya hurried over and removed her hands. Feferi immediately moved on to something else, opening the cabinets in the kitchen.

“What do lumberjacks eat?’

“I don’t know, what do princesses eat?”

“Fish. Whales. Sharks sometimes, when they’re being annoying.”

“Oh.”

Feferi seemed content to wander around the house, and there were still a few more things she hadn’t fiddled with yet, so Kanaya left her to it. She went back to sit with her mother, who was intently watching the two young trolls.

“It’s fine,” Kanaya said, although she was not entirely sure if she meant to reassure her mother or herself. The Mother Grub cooed in response, and nuzzled Kanaya’s neck. Of course it was fine.

“Hmm.” Feferi paused in her exploration of Kanaya’s things, needing a moment to think. Her lips pulled down in a frown.

“I was just thinking, how, maybe I am not cut out to fell the Condesce just yet, even though that was essentially the thing I was born to do.”

Kanaya didn’t feel like she knew the other woman well enough to confirm or deny. She seemed fairly nice, which right there was a sign she might not cut it as Empress.

“I’ve been hiding and on the run for ever,” Feferi continued, “which it seems like you have been too.” Kanaya glanced back at her Mother. Kanaya had been too young to remember when they were on the run, and thankfully they had never had to flee from this hive, but their life had been lived furtively. And she had also turned her back on the thing she was born to do, the breeding caverns not even a distant memory for her. At the thought of the similarity between her and Feferi, she could feel a small seed of pity blooming in the pit of her stomach for the Heiress.

“I suppose,” Kanaya started slowly, still trying to weigh her options, “that I could teach you to fell trees instead?”

Feferi gasped at the thought. “We could be rogue lumberjacks together!”

Kanaya smiled. “Yes, I could teach you how to chop down trees and all the attendant steps. I’d have to remember to teach you to call out. And then to also do it myself.” The Mother Grub made a small chiding noise. She had heard all the commotion then; Kanaya had hoped she had slept through it.

Feferi lunged across the room to envelop her in a hug.

“How exciting!” Pulling away, Feferi pursed her lips as she thought quickly. “I suppose I could always come back to the overthrow the monarchy thing, eventually. Lumberjack skills would have to be transferable to empire running.”

“I will hold you to making me the official royal lumberjack, if it comes to that. But until then, let’s get you equipped with a chainsaw.”


End file.
